The Way to Valentines
by shamelessllamapeanutthing
Summary: When you are as good at hiding your feelings as Ray and Kai have come to be, the holiday of love is sure to bring some distress. After all, the way to Valentines has always been a tough one, especially if the two are completely unwilling to talk about their feelings.


~12/2~

"Meanwhile, what about Ray?"

Kai looked up at his blonde teammate with a raised brow. The younger boy just smiled patronisingly and Kai itched to smack his plump face into the next week.

"Why do you always act like this Kai? You were there. You know very well, Zeo plans to ask him out tomorrow."

The older boy turned away. "What is it to me?"

"What if Ray says yes?"

"Then he has a date." Kai wondered exactly when he had opened himself up to such an extent that the little sugar-junkie cretin felt comfortable asking him questions of that sort, or any sort come to think of it. He could successfully blame that one on the other, less annoying, less idiotic raven-haired cretin. Every time the jerk so much as smiled at him; he could feel knots inside him easing out. Slowly and steadily, Ray coaxed him out of his self-constructed shell, not that he would ever be caught referring to his _suave_ disinterest in everything mundane and mortal as a defence mechanism.

For the most part, it really wasn't and he hated it when people made out his inclination towards silence and minding-his-own-bloody-business to be a consequence of his traumatic childhood. He was naturally distant, predisposed to a quiet existence with clearly demarcated boundaries that he would rather no-one crossed. No-one except a certain Chinese boy who was going to be asked to a date tomorrow by a guy Kai knew he found cute.

'Shit.'

"And that means nothing to you?" Max sat down on the ground beside him and reached over to pet the stray cat that had wandered to Kai and curled itself against his thigh. It apparently didn't like Max's intrusion any more than Kai did, for it stretched onto its tawny limbs and trotted away.

'That would never happen with Ray.'

"I don't know why cats never want to play with me." Max pouted before perking up a second later. "That's alright. I like dogs better anyway! You though, always had a thing for cats, and they had a thing for you!"

"This allegory ran its course long, long ago, Max."

"Ray is a cat!" He started giggling and Kai barely refrained himself from smacking his own forehead.

"Am I now?"

'Here he comes.'

The two seated bladers looked up in unison at their third teammate as he left the shadows of the porch of Tyson's dojo and stepped out into the sunlight, and Kai couldn't help but notice how his warm tanned skin glowed under the sun, his eyes reflected it.

'Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.'

"What are you both upto?" Ray asked just as he moved to sit on the other side of Kai. He couldn't though, as the captain stood up abruptly, and walked off without a glance back at his one perplexed and one strangely hurt teammate.

—-

The first time he knew he had fallen for the neko-jin was when he returned to the Abbey and Tala tried to kiss him like they used to back when he lived there. It had always been a measure of comfort for both the boys, a means to cope with the stress, pain and frustration of life as laboratory experiments cum war soldiers.

Tala had taken his face in his hands and whispered how much he missed him before giving him the most passionate and toe-curling kiss Kai had ever received from him. In essence, it should have sent him in a frenzy, desperate for more, but he felt nothing. Nothing at all.

Except for a burn that started in his sternum and conquered every inch of him till he couldn't tell one emotion from another, confused as to why he was suddenly immune to the gorgeous boy and his sultry advances. Till in one brief moment of clarity, his subconscious fed life into a treacherous confession. He wished it was Ray.

It also made him realise that he had actually had feelings for the redhead before, but that ship had sailed. For both of them, as he later found out. Tala had his sights set on the their favourite homicidal psychopath.

—-

Ray sighed as he headed inside. Max had given him a pitying look before leaving about seventeen minutes ago. He sat there for a little longer to wrap his head around this new change in their equation. Never before had Kai blatantly dismissed him like that, or actually gone out of his way just to avoid his company. It stung him a bit. He had no idea what he had recently done to piss him off. Kai was usually nicer to him than anybody else in the house, tolerated his company with little to no grumbling and sometimes even seemed to want it.

As he entered the kitchen, he came face to face with the owner of the dojo, or his grandson at least. He was chewing messily on a chocolate dough cookie while scouring the fridge for, presumably, something to drink. He looked up at Ray with a grin before taking note of the expression on his teammate's face. "Yo mate, what's the long face for?"

Ray sighed. In the middle of his chaotic pining behind Kai, he had needed a confidante. Tyson was the only one around that day. "Kai."

Tyson's expression remained unchanged. "What about old sourpuss?"

"He was sitting under a tree and talking to Max about something, probably me because I overheard Max mention me but as soon as I went to join them, he just got up and left."

"That's weird. He never does that to you. Maybe Max was the one he was looking to escape."

"He didn't seem all that crowded when I got there, Ty. It was me he was avoiding."

"Ray we have been over this a million times. The guy is nice to you. He likes you. You have a shot. You just don't wanna take it."

"Just because he doesn't threaten to kill me roughly four times every day doesn't mean he actually likes me. He just tolerates me better because I am quieter than you and Max. Plus, he isn't the sort of person to stall and wait around for things to happen to him. If he wanted me, I would have known by now."

"So you are just giving up on the guy now?"

"Do I have too many options?"

"I don't know Ray. I feel like your constant efforts to get him to open up have actually made him a little softer than he used to be. You might actually be one of those idiots who give up right when they are about to achieve their goal."

"My goal was to have him in my bed and no-one else's for the rest of my life, not to get him to open up and like you guys. And anyway, it just might be possible that it's really not me, that he has just gotten used to hanging around us now."

Tyson chewed on his lower lip in contemplation.

—-

Kai was a fine, _bloody fine_, specimen of the desirable side of the male species. That was clear to Ray when he first saw the guy, as pompous and pretentious as he appeared to be. As far as the Chinese teen was concerned back then, he would have loved to get all hot and heavy with the teen, as much and as frequently as he wished to, and then have nothing more to do with the giant ice prick.

He would have preferred it were those the only feelings he held for him.

Kai had grown on him, a lot like mould. He didn't want to like him, didn't want to be able to look at him and actually_ see_, didn't want to be the one who knew him, neither did he want Kai to slowly become his best friend on the team who understood him better than all these perfectly friendly and likeable dudes who would probably be better to talk to anyway.

But they weren't, they weren't better to talk to, because they never listened to him like _he_ did.

They could never, simply by looking at him, calm all his insecurities like he could. They had never bothered to follow him out in to the depth of the night all to try to alleviate his worries, the way he had, many, many times. They couldn't communicate their own worries to him without even using words like Kai was used to. Or maybe that one was his own fault. He had perfected his Kaibonics and never bothered with anybody else's lingo.

—-

When Kai finally decided to grace the dojo with his presence again, it was late in the night and the first person he came across was Ray, sitting sullenly on the couch and scooping alarmingly huge spoonful's of chocolate ice-cream into his furiously working mouth. As their eyes met, both boys froze, Ray out of awkwardness and Kai out of guilt for how he had treated Ray earlier in the day.

"Hi." Ray rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly, spoon still clutched between fingers.

Kai was seized by this sudden urge to leave the room, which he reigned in. He knew that if he blew Ray Kon off twice in one day he would very well end up giving him another existential crisis and he became extremely hard to negotiate with, then.

"Why are you up?"

Ray placed the tub of ice-cream aside before he stood up and turned to face his captain. "I was waiting for you."

"Why?" His eyebrows twitched to rise but he could see his younger teammate was nervous enough already.

"No reason." Ray swallowed whatever he originally wanted to say.

Kai stepped closer to him. His hand almost moved of its own accord to stroke that smooth tanned cheek, run a finger over that plump lower lip and free it from the fang currently biting on it.

"Why are you up, Ray?"

Nervous golden eyes darted to his. "Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Okay."

They stood gazing at each other for a moment longer before Ray turned around and left the living room, his long braid smacking the doorframe on his way out.

—-

~13/2~

'That witch!'

Ray turned his face away, so as to avoid having to look at the box of chocolates resting by Kai's arm on the table in front of him. Hilary had come from whatever hell hole she lived in a few minutes ago and shamelessly offered _his_ Kai chocolates, asking him out on a date for Valentine's next day. Though Kai had politely (in Kaibonics) turned her down, it didn't help the raging hellfire of jealousy in Ray's chest.

'How dare she?!'

The moment the words were out of her mouth, Kai had looked up at him, and Ray was afraid to imagine what expression he had worn just then because the older boy had smirked before turning to Hilary and telling her that he was honoured to be asked, but he would rather not. End of discussion. She had pushed the box of chocolates into his hands and hastily left but she didn't look all that disappointed.

'Well, she soon will be. Given who decided to follow behind her.' Tyson.

Within the next ten minutes, Max and Kenny had made themselves scarce. Leaving the oldest two alone in the kitchen. They didn't say anything, silently sipping their own mugs of coffee.

"Do you?" Kai asked, abruptly.

Any other day and the Chinese teen would know without asking what the older teen meant, but he was especially upset just then. So…

"Huh?"

"Do you have a date tomorrow?"

He couldn't help the sigh that escaped him. "No."

A tentative silence. "Do you want one?"

"I do but I don't think the one I want to go out with has any plans to ask me, ever."

"Ask them yourself, then."

"And risk amputation?"

"They that bad?"

"No, not really, but it would feel like it, if I ended up straining our friendship somehow."

Kai was next to him now, too close, too far. Ray felt like he couldn't breathe.

—-

As the younger teen whipped around and all but ran out of the room, Kai smirked. Ray was his. Zagart never stood a chance.

—-

Pale arms wrapped around his torso with such force, yet such gentleness that Ray felt he would collapse if they were ever withdrawn.

In his various Kai gazing sessions, Ray had often noted just how strong his arms looked, packed with muscles and lined with veins that stood out whenever he strained himself the least bit. Those arms, he could have written poetry about Kai's arms if he didn't possess literally no talent under that head whatsoever. Now those arms wrapped around him, soft and full lips latching onto the side of his neck, fluttering, kissing, sucking. His tongue snaked out some times and licked Ray's skin before his teeth nipped down on it, hard enough to make him cry out with pleasure.

He didn't know where their apparel had disappeared. He could feel the love of his life against himself, closer than he had ever dared imagine they would be. He whispered sweet nothings against his flesh and tilted his head back, fingers laced in his hair, trailing down to the nape of his neck before crawling back up again and gripping hard, forceful and urgent then relinquishing their hold and stroking down the other side of his neck and chest, tugging softly on the stud pierced into his right nipple.

He moaned, deep and throaty and the weight on top of him shifted, eyes coloured like the red of desire, gazing at him filled with an emotion so tangible, so _soft_ that he leaned up to touch the face above him. Those eyes fluttered shut under his fingertips and he trailed his index finger down to that parted mouth. The lips gave way under the gentle pressure he applied to them and his digit entered Kai's mouth where his tongue lay tentative licks on it.

… and he opened his eyes.

With a sigh, he sat up having recognised the familiar tread of footsteps heading his way. The object of his waking fantasies.

Kai entered the room and smirked when he saw him sitting on the sofa, a cushion covering his lap so obviously that he blushed when the older boy's gaze trailed down to it. "Straighten yourself out, Kon. There's someone here to see you." He glanced up at Ray's hair and he realised with a groan that he had mussed it up when he had gripped it, imagining it was _someone else_. The very same someone else who was now gazing at him with an expression that set him on edge.

"What no!" A cheery voice followed Kai into the room. Zeo appeared a second later. "Ray Kon with a sexy bedhead, by all means let me enjoy the sight." The newcomer glanced expectantly at Kai, with silent understanding as if Kai was supposed to know whatever Zeo seemed to want of him. The older blader however, merely crossed his arms across his chest and placed himself next to his teammate.

Zeo frowned slightly but said nothing and instead turned his eyes on the confused Chinese teen sitting between the two of them.

"So Ray, got any plans for tomorrow?" Zeo chirped but kept wringing his hands.

"No, Zeo what about you?"

"I am hoping I will. With you?"

"Uh…" It took Ray five seconds to understand what the green-haired boy was trying to say.

.

.

.

"Zeo, wow." Ray sighed.

"And it's a no." The younger boy smiled, though he looked threateningly close to tears. "It's alright Ray. I… I kinda knew, I mean, I just thought it was worth trying and…" He started chuckling. "Guess it's true, huh? No matter how desperately you want someone… You can never get who you truly want." The speech was disjointed and very, very typical of Zeo when he was distressed and Ray felt his heart split in two all over again.

His fist closed around the cushion cover, clenching. "I am so, so sorry Zeo. I know its small comfort but, we are really in the same boat here."

Zeo smiled again, eyes sad. "I guess I will see you later then."

Ray nodded dumbly still trying to recover from Zeo's whirlwind appearance, seeing as he had registered barely anything. If he was to be asked, he probably couldn't even tell anyone what the guy who had just proposed to him had been wearing.

"I will see you later." He responded belatedly, after Zeo had already left the room.

A hand snaked on top of his, closing gently over his fist and squeezing. "You aren't, in the same boat I mean."

He turned to Kai, who had been so silent through this entire thing that Ray had, for the first time in his life, forgotten he was there. Currently though, the heat from his hand was warming Ray's own and slowly coaxing his fingers to loosen and grasp his own instead as Kai sneaked his fingers under his, gripping his hand fully.

As Ray met his eyes, Kai lifted their joined hands to his mouth, kissing his fingers softly and graced the dumbstruck Chinese teen with the softest smile he had ever received from him.

It jolted Ray and made him realise what Kai had said.

A second later, he was perched on top of his chuckling captain's lap, bouncing excitedly as he crowded him with a hug that was to be the first of many. Kai wrapped his arms around Ray's hips and stilled him, pulling him flush against his own body, burying his chuckles into the hollow of his neck before leaning up and kissing him full on the mouth.

Ray responded eagerly, lacing fingers through the darker hair at the back of Kai's head and angling it the way he wanted it to be, so that he could slide his lips on top of Kai's more snugly, kissing him with a passion that made the older boy rock lover still wrapped securely in his arms, arching back under his weight as he tried to pull Kai on top of him more fully, as close as they could be. Realising the restrictions of their current position, both boys broke apart, panting and nowhere near satisfied.

"Get up off me, you dumb mutt."

Ray laughed breathlessly but stood up from on top of Kai, pulling him to his feet himself, prompting him to wrap his arm around Ray's waist once more, dragging him out of the sitting room and into his own to commence another first of many to come, except a little more intimate and a lot more pleasurable, where he knew for sure nobody would come to disturb them.


End file.
